


Clean-up

by franklin_delorean_roosevelt



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 20:38:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3424790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franklin_delorean_roosevelt/pseuds/franklin_delorean_roosevelt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Team Galactic shattered the peace of the Celestic Ruins, they shattered something in Cynthia. It’s going to be a while before she feels better, but newfound love might hold the key.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clean-up

**Author's Note:**

> Because everyone needs more F/F fluff.~

When Team Galactic shattered the peace of the Celestic Ruins, they shattered something in Cynthia. She still shook when she woke up, shaken with rage or fear or some other emotion she couldn’t identify.

The recovery process for the ruins was messy, noisy, and so arduously slow that Cynthia came close sometimes to questioning if they meant anything.

It wasn’t that she didn’t love them. Quite the opposite. She remembered long, lazy summer days as a young girl, taking rubbings of the beautiful carvings on the wall. It made her cringe now to think of how rough she was, but her romps around these ruins ignited a fire in her heart. She still felt a thrill stepping into the lives of these ancient people. It was as if they stood with her, pointing her to the tangible clues to their existence. She needed to find them, to keep them alive, if only in the historical record.

When the ruins fell, though, so callously destroyed by the machinations of a single man, it cast her entire passion under a shadow of her newfound doubt. Why did she devote her life to such a fragile endeavor? All that she knew, studied, and hoped for could be blown to dust in an instant.

It had been two days since Team Galactic’s attack, and everyone expected Cynthia to know the next move, as the champion _and_ a noted archaeologist _and_ a Celestic native _and_ Carolina’s granddaughter. They didn’t see her in the mornings, when she laid in bed, too tired to sleep but too bitter to move. She would move eventually, with Garchomp’s prodding, but she felt no better. She would throw on her clothes and a smile in the mornings, and face a world that needed her right now, but nobody seemed to notice how brittle her smiles were and how quickly they fell.

Today was a better day for Cynthia. Better was relative, of course. 

The Celestic Ruins were still buzzing with cleanup activity. Cranes beeped as they lifted the largest chunks of stone out of the rubble. Archaeologists and volunteers sifted through the rest, trying to salvage what they could piece together. The whole scene was hectic and dismal. Cynthia felt like her emotions simply mirrored the ruins, and that worried her the most. That would mean that she would feel this way for years to come, and maybe forever. She cursed Team Galactic for damaging everything they touched.

Cynthia joined the cleanup efforts, which seemed to perk up when she arrived. She donned a work vest and put on her usual sunny face, and everyone looked to her as some sort of cheerful figurehead. It was enough to drive her mad, and by the evening, her hands were shaking and her optimistic mask was cracking.

She disappeared the first moment she had a chance and leaned on a windowsill around the furthest side of the Historical Research Center. The window was shuttered, but no one was inside the center, anyway. She was just so happy to avoid looking at the ruins. Well, the ruins of the ruins. She stared into the thick woods, finally feeling simply numb, and shuffled around in one of the pockets of her vest. She pulled out a package of cigarettes, sighed ruefully, and lit up, slouching with her elbows on the windowsill. 

Her nerves calmed, albeit briefly. Cynthia had hardly a minute of time before she heard a flurry of flapping from above. Someone was descending from flight, and Cynthia panicked. She dropped her cigarette into the dirt below the window and ground it beneath her heel.

A skarmory landed in the narrow strip of grass between the center and the woods. The setting sun glinted off its metallic feathers as it let out a high-pitched shriek. A young woman sat on its back, and she dismounted, hopping down lightly onto the ground. Cynthia smiled when she saw that it was Jasmine, but she kept silent. She loved to see Jasmine interact with her Pokemon, and this evening was no exception. Jasmine held the Skarmory’s head gently and gave it a small peck on its beak. The Skarmory crowed as she returned it to a Pokeball.

Cynthia called out to Jasmine, who blushed furiously as she finally noticed the other woman. She started to walk over, but Cynthia hopped off her perch and ran to meet her. She threw her arms around Jasmine, who at first stiffened in the embrace, then wrapped her arms around Cynthia. Jasmine was shorter, so she buried her face in Cynthia’s shoulder. The hug lasted a while, and when Cynthia let go, Jasmine still held her for a brief moment longer. She realized this and stepped back quickly, blushing slightly. She looked down, but the package of cigarettes in Cynthia’s hand caught her eye.

“What are those?” she asked, looking up at Cynthia with her forehead knit with worry.

Cynthia sighed ruefully, “A disgusting habit. I’m trying to quit.”

Jasmine nodded slowly. “Um…did I interrupt you?”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t usually let people see me like this,” Cynthia scratched the back of her head and absentmindedly tangled her fingers through her hair.

“Oh, okay. I’ll go get started in the ruins,” Jasmine said as she started to turn away.

“No! Wait, please.” Cynthia caught her arm. “I’ll be fine, Jasmine. I’ll come with you. I don’t have to do this.”

Jasmine studied her for a long moment. “You don’t have to hide it from me,” she said softly.

Cynthia looked stunned for a moment, then smiled and winked. “Well, damn. I wouldn’t have wasted that last cigarette if I’d known you’d be this nice.”

Jasmine gave a small smile in return and the pair sat on the sill together. Cynthia took out another cigarette and lit it facing away from her friend. Sure, it felt a little awkward to be in this positon, but Cynthia was genuinely touched that Jasmine would still want to sit with her.

“I came as soon as I could. I’m so sorry, Cynthia,” Jasmine said. Cynthia thought she saw Jasmine’s eyes well up, but whether it was from the smoke or the sadness was unclear. She was only a few years younger than Cynthia, but her shy demeanor and tender heart made her seem younger. It was sad that strong feelings seemed so youthful, Cynthia mused.

“Yeah,” Cynthia said heavily. She couldn’t think of anything more to say, so she repeated it. They sat in heavy silence, until Cynthia spoke.

“I just can’t believe myself, you know. I’m supposed to be a role model now, with the eyes of the world on me. People look up to me, and I’m still stuck here,” she waved her package of cigarettes to emphasize her point, “burning off some habit I got when I was a punk teenager. I can get down to where I’m using almost none of these, but I get stressed and everything flames up again. And Team Galactic hasn’t helped at all.”

Jasmine nodded. She was quiet for a few moments, then said, “I think you’ll be fine, Cynthia. You’re trying, at least, and some people don’t even try as hard as you do. And they’re not even the champion.”

Cynthia actually blushed when Jasmine said it, and she stammered her thanks. They continued to sit in silence, but there was now something heavier about it. Cynthia glanced over at Jasmine, and she was blushing as well. She glanced at Cynthia, too, and their eyes met for a brief moment before Jasmine tore her eyes away and looked at the ground in front of her.

Cynthia looked forward, her heart suddenly pounding and her mind racing. Oh. Why was Jasmine acting like this? Did she have…feelings for Cynthia?

They became friends when Cynthia jaunted off to Johto, ostensibly researching the Ruins of Alph. In reality, though, it had been the fifth anniversary of her gaining the championship, and the weight of the title had settled on her more fully than before. Why had she spent five years doing this? What did it all mean? She did her research half-heartedly, barely able to focus, until the gym leader had poked her head into the ruins one day. It startled Cynthia, honestly, and Jasmine had been just as surprised. But Jasmine’s quiet, earnest energy made Cynthia smile for the first time that vacation when her Garchomp had taken an immediate liking to the younger woman.

Once Cynthia was out of her funk enough to leave the ruins, she visited Olivine City and met Jasmine at her gym. They spent an enjoyable week together (Cynthia was surprised and flattered that Jasmine would put the gym on hold for her), and Cynthia returned to Sinnoh feeling much clearer. She finally felt like she’d had a vacation.

Cynthia’s cigarette had been burning, almost forgotten. She took another drag and blew out. “What are you thinking about, Jasmine?”

Jasmine looked like a stantler in the headlights. She opened her mouth, then clamped it shut again. Finally, she took a deep breath and said, “Cynthia, I’m really glad that I met you when you came to Johto and I’m glad that you’re okay and I just feel comfortable when I’m around you, more comfortable than I feel around anyone else and I’ve just been thinking about you a lot lately and—“ Jasmine finally took a deep breath, but she didn’t continue speaking.

Cynthia leaned a little closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Jasmine, what are you trying to say?”

Jasmine’s furious blush and the way she looked away said everything. 

Cynthia’s heart pounded and her chest tightened. She felt like she could laugh for sheer joy at that moment. Cynthia slid her hand over until it rested on Jasmine’s. She leaned closer, aiming to give her a peck on the cheek, before she realized she was holding a lit cigarette and her breath was probably _terrible_. She straightened up and snuffed out her cigarette. She’d wasted two tonight, but she didn’t really mind.

Cynthia was blushing now as Jasmine looked over, and she said, “Sorry Jasmine, I feel the same way, it’s just that my breath is terrible right now and I should have some gum somewhere.” She started digging through her pockets. She couldn’t check more than one before Jasmine lunged to her, pressing their lips together.

It was a clumsy, forceful, spontaneous kiss, and Cynthia was so startled that she knocked her package of cigarettes off the windowsill and all over the ground. She laughed and wrapped her arms around Jasmine’s neck, deepening the kiss.

They broke away from the kiss with two matching grins, and after Cynthia had picked up the fallen cigarettes (and thrown them all away), they walked hand-in-hand to the ruins.

The ruins were no more repaired than they had been before, and the world still felt like a mess to Cynthia. But the way her fingers intertwined with Jasmine’s tethered Cynthia to something happier, and her heart felt lighter than it ever had before. She didn’t know how soon it would be, but things would be alright.


End file.
